Harlow 3 Thurrock 57

London League Division Two North East

27th March 2010

Thurrock have already won the league and have a 8 point lead over the second placed club. They have scored an average of just under 40 points per game throughout the season. To summarise they are playing at different level to the remaining 11 clubs in the table. On Saturday when Harlow played them it became clear why they have such strong record. They were able to control play he in most situations and excellent running combined with very good support play from their back row ensure that even when tackling was good if the ball was quickly offloaded and the attack maintained.

For the first quarter Harlow had a reasonable amount of territory and looked as though they may be able to make a contest of it. Although they conceded two tries when on 20 minutes Dobson slotted a penalty making the score 12 points to 3 in favour of Thurrock Harlow still seemed to be in the game. As play progressed however, it became clear that Thurrock were able to dominate possession, winning a significant amount of ball by turnover that the Rucks. This kept their fast moving backs well supplied with attacking opportunities and Thurrock added two more tries before halftime taking the score to 24 points to three at the turn around.

In the second half Thurrock continued to score freely adding a total of five tries before the finish. Harlow continued to apply a pressure throughout the game and were unfortunate not to score when a good attacking move between Simon Vanbeck and Rob Mackie was stopped just one metre short of the corner. They had a number of opportunities to reduce the Thurrock margin by penalties, two of which were in front of the posts. Given the large lead however they opted to kick for the corner and mount pressure on the Thurrock line. The final score of 57points to three in favour of the home side included four tries by the Thurrrock fullback Worster.

Other results from league matches played last Saturday a quite favourable for Harlow. In particular Chelmsford one at a Norwich and this means that none of the bottom three clubs, Chelmsford, Norwich and Mersey island can overhaul Harlow meaning that with two games to play their worst possible position is ninth. If they still had matches to play against Romford and Saffron Walden and wins in a either of these could leave them closer to mid table.

Tries:

Conversions:  

Penalties: Micheal Dobson

Team List

1 -  Paul Prindiville (Sub 50mins  Matt Branch )

2 -  Stuart Wilkins (Sub 65mins  Paul Prindiville )
3 -  Danny Lane  

4 -  Kerry Palmer 

5 -  Paul Eynon  

6 -  Scott Romaine (Captain) (Sub 60mins  Shaun Roberts )
7 -  Mark Bowering

8 -  Kain Claridge

9 -  Lee Harron

10 - Micheal Dobson

11 - Simon Vanbeck
12 - James McFerran
13 - Luke Bowering

14 - Will Grimley (Sub 50mins Danny Smith )

15 - Rob Mackie

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